Linux Basic Linux Server Guide

www.absoluteinsight.net just posted a Basic Linux Server Guide for any of you out there looking to get started in Linux. Covers the basics of installation, and how to set up a FTP, HTTP, PHP, MySQL, and Samba Server.

http://www.absoluteinsight.net/index.php?id=292&page=1

-Impact

comments? suggestions?

 

Your link goes to a 404... But I found the article on the first page. I think the author kinda screwed up when they called Mandrakes graphical install text-based.

L J

 

Wierd, didn't even notice it put those .... in there...
Link fixed
sorry about that!

 

I haven't got time to look at it now really, but I'm in the process of setting up ProFTPD on my Slackware box, so your guide will be of use

 

Good luck with that SimonW. Shouldn't have any problem as it didn't take me long at all to get it set up. Of course that may be because I had spent a month before trying to get it set up in Debian....

 

Well, I am actually stuck on configuring ProFTPD at the moment I can get anonymous login working, but telling it to use /etc/users (?) doesn't seem to work.

I'll probably have another bash at it tonight if I don't get home too late again

EDIT: Don't s'pose you can help with this?

 

Sorry I can't help with the Folding@Home thing.

For the ProFTPd I found some good info at http://proftpd.org/ that helped me get it all set up. I'm sure the documentation on there can help. I ended up going through the example configurations and starting with those and adding new things.

Also looking at the guide Impact posted, it looks that can help you with ProFTPd too. That's the only section I looked Impact, but it looks pretty good. I configured it all in Debian and Slackware from the command line. Looks like Webmin would have made it easier in a "windows-like" kinda way.

 

I've been working on learning the ProFTPD conf file for a while, if you have questions, post them up, or PM me, I'll see if I can help.

As for the booting with Slackware. In Red Hat there is a /etc/rc.local file. Adding commands to that will have them run after boot processes. I have my ProFTPD, Apache, and Samba in there to start at boot. I assume you could just throw in the line to start FaH...

Also, you on a team?

 

I keen to do everything via CLI and not use something like webmin - I want to learn how to use ProFTPD, etc and not how to use a configuration tool

I'm still at work currently, but I'll post something either later tonight to tomorrow.

I tried putting something in /etc/rc.d/rc.M (?), but that didn't seem to work

Yes, but not the bit-tech team

 

heh
try to see if theres just an rc.local, I know the rc.X are different boot levels...
again, I'm just starting linux, so i'm not the best person to answer questions =P

 

if you ask me, the guy who wrote that is a nOOb of the worst kind- noobs pretending that they arent!

quote:

I decided to install all three desktops (KDE, X Window, and GNOME), system tools, development tools, games, and graphics programs.

I bet the only distros he's ever used are Mandrake and Redhat.
durr....
X Windows is not a desktop, buddy!
holy crapola.

 

First...why are trying to slam someone? If you'll look at who started this thread and who posted the article at Absolute Insight you'll notice...OMG...they have the same name! Would ya look at that! And since you didn't notice that part...maybe you also missed the part in his post where he said:

So maybe you could give some constructive comments or suggestions instead of coming in here and calling people nOObs like some elitist punk! Or just keep your mouth shut.

 

deviate, your smackdown was right and true , but there are points here (I've not read yet the article, so I'm speaking generally) in that anyone can post a guide, that doesnt make it accurate. while the internet is the resource, relying on one guide is often not a good idea, because someone who sounds like they know what their talking about doesnt always really know - you could end up spending hours trying to get something working, only to find the guide is wrong .

Impact, my comments are not directed at you, cos I've not read your article (yet) so i can't comment on it - more as a general warning to look stuff up in more than one place

[edit]
Having now read it, a few suggestions - if the system is only a server, dont install any window managers on it at all (KDE, Gnome etc) take this as general advice, as implemting it to your guide would be a lot of work .

However, this should be included in your guide: on no account should you log in to a window manager as root. WM's do lots of things behind the scenes, and running one as root is potentially very dangerous to your system. Slight errors in commands running as root (not to put you off) can render your system unusable . Instead, pull up a console window, type "su" to substitute user get into root, and run commands from the command line. Any command can be run from a console window, even those with a GUI. try running "mozilla-browser" =). The substitute user command can be used to switch to other usernames on the system to. The correct syntax is as follows:

Code:

su {username}

where {username} defaults to root.

Also, a non-Linux issue, but i would suggest to people that at the same time as opening ports on their firewall, they gave the server a static IP assignment (via DHCP), as other wise the ports could end up open to the wrong machine when addresses shift around =)

Hope this all helps =)

 

Definatly, I knew about the su (i thought it stood for super-user, but who knows), but being that I am behind a firewall (on my personal network), I didn't think much of the security.
As for the not having any WM's: This was my first time using Linux (hey, would you look at that, I AM a n00b, and have no problem admitting it... funny...), I honestly needed some help =P. I've learned enough commands by now to probably re-enact the guide using only the command lines, but at the time of writing I hadn't. Also, if I was planning on only running it as a server, I would most likely install Debian, but the truth is, I'm incredibly intruiged by clustering (beowulf), and plan on trying to learn the basics... I figure a WM will help me a lot here as well...
Thank you for the comments though =P
As for the guy just sitting here bashing, I don't really know what to say.. You found out the big secret, I am a newb .
Edit: And I forgot to mention... How did you know it was one of my first distros?! Perhaps the paragraph near the front that says something along the lines of "I tried Mandrake, but had graphics card issues and switched to Red Hat"... Congrats... Since writing the article however, I have tested SuSE, Slackware, Debian, Mandrake, and Fedora C2 (Running currently). I was looking to test college linux, but Fedora I like... Anyhow...
Thanks for your comments =P

 

Very quick and easy clustering - provided your machines can boot from the network. actually i think you can do it even if they can't, with some kind of boot floppy *shrugs* ClusterKnoppix

basically you rig up the beowulf structure: (outside network -> rootnode -> switch ->slave nodes), then boot the root node from the CD. Then boot any number of machines over the network from the root node, and they boot as slave nodes knoppix style (auto configuring hardware etc.)

Good for playing about with to start with anyways =)

 

Very sweet, ill definatly check into it...
thats what I had in mind as well, I had read that they each booted by their own HD's, but i guess you could do it both ways...
with them booting from the network (root comp), what size HD do you throw in the clustered comps?
just like a 1gb?

 

yeah - in a permanent beowulf setup, they'd all boot from their own hard drives, but this is a more knoppix type solution - you could do it on a network of new windows machines without touching any of the windows drives. It'd be a lot slower, but it's a good testing tool =) I think you need a reasonable amount of ram in each too, but you can make a a swapfile on the windows partitions / use a linux swap partition

for a permanent beowulf setup 1GB for the normal nodes would be ample. assuming you use something small like vector, you can get away with 256-500MB (a pet dream project of mine is a rack of 1U headless machines as slave nodes, each runnning from a 256MB compactflash card )

 

lol
that would be sweet =P

 

My only question is why? I don't want to sound rude, I understand you'd get more processing power, but what would you use the power for? Serving, your own research project(s), bragging rights, or what?

L J

 

i'm a big fan of the reason "because I can" and also "because it's fun and interesting" yes, it'd be total overkill, but so is 2 to 3 GHz in most people's machines (admittedly not many people here, but only cos they use their machines for fun). It would probably end up as a server, but that's not the point, I could (and for that matter have done so) make a server perfectly powerful enough for my needs, but this is doing something which almost everyone on this forum does, or wants to do. Make their machine stand out a little.